Under the provisions of the new Bill, the offences related to black money will be non-compoundable and the offenders will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission.

The bill also has provision of punishment to deal with the black money cases. It proposes penalty at the rate of 300 per cent of taxes to be levied on the concealed income and assets, in addition to 10 years rigorous imprisonment.

Union Cabinet also gave its nod for signing of an agreement with the US on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The agreement will enable India to acquire information on big foreign transactions and indirectly curb black money stashing.

Apart from these decisions, Union Cabinet also approved to release of 33,000 crore rupees in tranches to states and Union Territories (UTs). These tranches will provide compensation to states and UTs for revenue loss on account of phasing out of Centre Sales Tax, CST for the three financial years up to 2012-2013.